Conformance Statements and You: Part 1

Deque offers the service of collaborating with your organization to create a Conformance Statement for your website. A Conformance Statement is a document from a trusted third party that details the level of accessibility you organization’s web application has achieved.

It’s important to have a Conformance Statement on hand because it establishes awareness of accessibility, and it demonstrates that your company is planning and making an effort to address accessibility concerns.

Your Conformance Statement lays out what technologies your site employs and supports, what is not supported, what the requirements for using the site are (optimal browsers, etc.), what criteria you’re following, and other relevant information.

A conformance statement, exhibits awareness and a proactive attitude about accessibility, which can help to protect companies in legal situations or in the event of regulatory interest in the site. It can also be used by organizations to provide information while bidding on contracts, replying to RFP’s, or just to answer the question “how accessible is your site?” Overall, it’s an efficient and authoritative way to document your organization’s commitment to accessibility.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we will discuss how to go about getting a Conformance Statement.

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About Caitlin Cashin

Caitlin is an "Accessibility Decoder" at Deque Systems. She joined the team back in 2011 and has taken on a variety of roles over the years. These days she spends her time exploring the best ways to communicate accessibility ideas and solutions to the general public.